Sailaway date for Catcher FPSO coming near

First oil from Premier Oil-operated Catcher development in the UK sector of the North Sea remains on track for later this year with sailaway date for the FPSO unit set for next month.

The Catcher, made up of several fields discovered between 2010 and 2013, is located 170 kilometers south-east of Aberdeen. The development entails 22 subsea wells, 14 producers and 8 water injectors, on the Catcher, Varadero and Burgman fields which will be tied back to a leased FPSO.

The BW Offshore-owned FPSO unit is being built at Keppel’s shipyard in Singapore where a naming ceremony was held in April. The vessel is 241 meters long, 50 meters wide and 27 meters deep. The unit will be able to process up to 60,000 barrels of oil a day.

In an operational update on Thursday, Premier said that topsides and turret commissioning work on the FPSO is now well advanced and the construction scope in the hull, along with habitation of the living quarters, is now complete.

Commissioning of the marine systems is gaining pace and the Catcher Safety Case has been approved by the Offshore Health & Safety Executive. As much commissioning work as possible will be completed in Singapore prior to sailaway to the UK which is now anticipated during August, the oil company said.

Furthermore, the company added, the planning for the anchorage commissioning in Singapore and the subsequent transit preparation is progressing well. Out in the field itself, 11 well, eight producers and three injectors, have been drilled to date and a short subsea campaign to tie in the four recently completed Varadero wells is complete.

Premier noted that the recent Burgman production well was delivered ahead of time and budget, and continues the trend of wells being delivered on, or better than, prognosis.